WNBA rookie Cameron Brink finds herself at the forefront of a pivotal moment for women’s basketball.
The sport is experiencing a surge in enthusiasm and media attention, something entirely new for Brink, fresh out of Stanford, and the WNBA itself. While this newfound popularity is undeniably groundbreaking, Brink acknowledges a hint of uncertainty about its longevity.
She described what she witnessed during a recent Q&A with Flaunt Magazine and expressed excitement and uncertainty.
“It’s kind of groundbreaking,” she says. “It’s just really exciting and honestly unfamiliar for me to have this much attention around women’s sports and women’s basketball, but we embrace it. We hope this momentum continues. There is a bit of fear, like, will people kind of hop off the bandwagon per se.”
If people are hopping off the proverbial bandwagon, it isn’t happening anytime soon. The WNBA is set to quadruple revenue in a new $2.2 billion media rights deal, so while the league is undeniably popular at this current junction, Brink’s fear centers around the fleeting nature of popularity, particularly in an age of short attention spans and condensed media content.
“Yeah, especially with media now and how short media—like videos—everything is continually shortened to fit with our attention span. I don’t know if that’ll carry over to our league,” said Brink. “I hope not. I don’t think it will because we have so much to offer. I think it’s just a part of me hoping that me and these other women get the continued support of the media and fans because we work so hard. Our league has just kind of been… not disrespected, but it’s not really familiar to us to have this amount of support.”
Whether the WNBA’s newfound popularity can weather the ever-changing media landscape remains to be seen. For now, it seems like Brink and Co. are ready to embrace this newfound attention and prove that the league and its talented women deserve sustained support.
[Flaunt]
